It's unfortunate that the vastness of an entire galaxy is diminished if all there is to do are trivial fetch quests and attempt assassination missions. If you buy the expansion that allows you to land on planets it still doesn't add much depth to the overall gameplay. The galaxy may look gorgeous but if there's nothing to actually do then it's pointless.
Around the 40 hour mark, you do get a small sense of life teeming out in the empty void. Whether you want your ship specialized as a cargo carrier, passenger transport, bounty hunter, speedy errand runner, warship, miner, or any various other profession is completely up to you. You can gain reputation points for your galactic faction as well as local factions by completing tasks given to you at each dock or station, but finishing these tasks doesn't feel as though it has any weight or bearing in the star system.
What brings about the worst aspect of the game is the traveling: unless you have a super-fast ship that can somehow hold several tons of fuel (or have spent another $40+ adding Horizons and the other expansions), traveling from one system or dock to another can take 10 minutes or more. All the while leaving you with absolutely nothing to do.
It's just not fun.
Each planet, star, and orbiting station is a copy+paste job and the entire galaxy is littered with an insurmountable number of them. It's $10 worth of content parading as a $40 game. There is very little reason to stay interested. PC users are already ahead of the Xbox One and PS4 players, who are left without any surprises waiting.
Cheaters have figured out how to make millions of credits and have already bought the best ships and weapons and they can easily pay off their bounties for attacking new players. There's always the private solo mode but that fairs no better since a lot of the NPCs handle their ships with the precision of military-trained veterans making dogfights one of the more poor aspects, and you will be attacked if you have certain cargo.
The entire universe has been created to go against you and the worst part is that there is a very shallow story to it all. You have to listen to the GalNet radio to catch a glimpse of the projects and Thargoid attacks in certain systems. There's never anything immediately happening that you, the player, can partake in.
Or you can work hard for a year and take part in the yearly journey to the other side of the galaxy. Good luck not being left behind on that one.